The annual Harambee festival is quickly approaching with attendees anticipating what this year’s event has in store. The event, hosted by Florida A&M University, is a cultural festival that showcases Black artists, storytellers and businesses in honor of Black History Month.
The all-day affair celebrates African culture, music and art while acknowledging the African American community in Tallahassee, welcoming locals with the opportunity to come together and celebrate diversity.
On Wednesday, a request to sponsor the Harambee festival was presented to the Tallahassee City Commission during the consent portion of its regular meeting. The sponsorship consists of waiving $2,165 in fees to support the festival set to take place at Cascades park on Feb. 24.
The city’s special events committee funds the cost of in-kind services in a 2 -year funding cycle. The Harambee Festival had previously applied for the sponsorship services in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022. However, the festival missed the application deadline for the 2023-2024 cycle. This mishap led to the question of whether FAMU’s Harambee festival qualifies for funding.
Tianna Fannell, a senior public relations student at FAMU, shared her thoughts on the importance of funding cultural events.
“Given the fact that the (county) commissioners issued an apology to the Black community for racist transgressions that happened in the past, I think it’s important for the city of Tallahassee to use this opportunity to show financial support and allyship to Black-operated events because of the chaotic past of racial discrimination,” Fannell said.
The commissioners asked a few questions for clarification such as, “Why didn’t the event apply before the funding cycle?”
The Harambee event organizer believed he was ineligible to apply because of previous grants and sponsorships. However, this proved to be false according to the fiscal year criteria. Commissioner Jeremy Matlow questioned the precedent the city would be setting by not taking the item out of the consent portion of the commission’s regular business.
“Acknowledge the need of consent for events that are asking for an exception to a city commission’s policy, and I think city commission’s policy should be the status quo unless the city commission’s direction is to explore something different,” Matlow said during the meeting.
Commissioner Dianne Williams-Cox, a FAMU alumna, spoke in support of assisting the festival.
“As a proud alumni of Florida A&M University and organizer of this Harambee festival, I’m sure that FAMU appreciates being able to partner with the city again to waive the fees and promote the good of our community during Black History Month,” Williams-Cox said.
The discussion ended with a 5-0 vote in favor of waiving the fees to ensure the festival is properly funded and accessible for the Tallahassee community.